Cellular communication systems for providing, e.g., mobile communication have become ubiquitous over the last decades. For example, 2nd Generation systems, such as the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM), and 3rd Generation systems, such as the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), have been deployed or are being deployed in most countries. Furthermore, there is a continuous trend towards further improving and enhancing cellular communication systems which have led to the development and standardization of a number of additions or enhancements to the systems.
There is an increasing trend towards providing increasingly flexible and diverse communication services in cellular communication systems. For example, initially 2nd Generation communication systems were designed for circuit switched voice communication. However, these systems, as well as newer systems, have increasingly catered for an increasing plethora of different communication services supporting, e.g., packet-based communications, different quality of service communication services, etc. Also, there is an increasing desire to support composite communication services which involve a plurality of different communication entities (infrastructure and devices), parties (e.g., operator, advertiser, Internet Service Provider etc.), business models and service agreements and communication services. A composite service may be a service offering to a consumer (or user) and may require synchronous or asynchronous invocation of a collection of other services of the operator or of independent third-party operators/providers in accordance with joint business interests and pricing policies of operators and providers. Prevalent examples of these services are incentive-based services, location-based content distributions and information dissemination services.
An important aspect of the operation of a cellular communication system is the efficient and accurate billing of users for the provided services. Typically, charging functionality has been implemented using a central charging centre (e.g., located in an operations and maintenance centre) which is fully operated and managed by the network operator. In such systems, the charging centre is fed charging data for all communications, and in response it generates the charging for the individual user. For example, whenever a circuit switched voice call is initialized or terminated, a charging data message, such as a Call Data Record (CRD), is transmitted to the charging centre which accordingly generates the appropriate billing data and allocates it to the individual subscribers.
However, although such an approach is suitable for simpler cellular communication systems providing a relatively small set of communication services, it also tends to have a number of associated disadvantages. Specifically, it tends to be inflexible and complex to implement and operate for more complex systems and communication services. For example, in order to support a specific communication service, the central charging centre must be set up to generate billing data for this communication service. Furthermore, to introduce a temporary or short-term charging change (e.g., a temporary discount if a specific condition is met), the central charging centre must be modified to introduce this discount. However, as correct operation of the charging centre is crucial for maximizing customer satisfaction, it is highly undesirable to have to frequently modify the charging centre operation or functionality. Furthermore, the centralized approach results in the charging information being concentrated either physically at the charging centre or logically under control of one administrative domain and not easily being available or distributable to other interested parties. Thus, sharing or distribution of charging data is not easily achieved.
As a specific example, the conventional charging approach is not optimally suited to dynamic and flexible composite services that involve a plurality of different communication services and dynamic service offerings from a number of different parties.
Hence, an improved charging approach for a cellular communication system would be advantageous and in particular an approach allowing increased flexibility, distributed control, reduced complexity, facilitated operation, increased charging accuracy, improved suitability for dynamic charging variations, improved suitability for communication services, increased customer satisfaction and improved performance would be advantageous.